Arc of Fire EP

NORELATION; 2013

Find it at:

Music from this release

Chris d'Eon has impeccable timing. The Montreal singer/songwriter/producer arrived on the scene back in 2010 with his proper debut LP Palinopsia; the record's mix of swirling synths and emotive crooning captured a few zeitgeist points in North American underground music culture—the still-going integration of R&B signifiers, the return of new age and kosmiche's starry-eyed tranquility, and a post-9/11 fixation on Eastern influences (in d'Eon's case, derived from his time spent in a Himalayan monastery). The following year saw a split release with perpetually of-the-moment fellow Canadian Grimes, Darkbloom, just as her star was on the impressive rise, while 2012's LP and his ongoing Music for Keyboards series found d'Eon pushing the new age triggers deep into the red. Arc of Fire, the debut EP from his new Kallisti project, is loaded with breakneck moments derived from 'ardkore and jungle's heyday—coincidentally, in a year where some of dance music's most accomplished producers have struck gold mining similar sounds.

A million miles away from the glistening, melismatic synth-pop of his previous releases, Arc of Fire, seemingly signals a 180 turn, creatively, for d'Eon. This isn't entirely true, though: d'Eon's FACT mix from last year, comprised almost entirely of new material, placed the high-BPM stuff amidst other, less intriguing genre-jacking attempts, presenting d'Eon as a prolific artist willing to try his hand at any sound regardless of how it fits him. Precedent aside, Arc of Fire does feel like a distinctive, and necessary, shift for the artist, as d'Eon's oft-pained vocals and diaristic lyrics, along with his dorm-room-bull-session conceptualism, are largely absent here. (The latter element isn't entirely gone: the name Kallisti references an element of Greek mythology that represents, according to a press release, "Vanity, discord, and chaos," the knowledge of which proves inessential in enjoying what d'Eon's done here.)

The Kallisti project may be rooted in genre pastiche, but d'Eon wears these new-for-him sounds quite well, making Arc of Fire his strongest and most cohesive release yet. The inescapable rush and psychedelic rhythms packed into the EP's most engaging moments, tempered with a few gorgeous melodic passages, suggest that d'Eon is a capable student of the sub-genre of dance music that he is so dutifully referencing. Arc of Fire is the second release for NORELATION, an offshoot of NYC label UNO, an imprint that has made a name for itself in 2013 with an increasingly intriguing roster of producers making dance music that falls far left of center, from SFV Acid's ramshackle analog haze to the distorted, eraser-in-your-ear techno favored by Gobby. Arc of Fire scratches a similarly niche itch, but its straightforward approach to the past is less ingenious by design than other releases on the label. (If anything, there's more in common here with the artists responsible for NORELATION's first release, defunct California duo LOL Boys, who similarly struggled to carve out an individual voice during their short, intermittently intriguing run.)

Arc of Fire may lack fresh ideas, but d'Eon does pull a few surprises out of his bag—notably, on "Millennial", which features the collection's boldest sample choice: the chorus to Backstreet Boys' 1998 mega-hit "I Want It That Way". d'Eon chops up the once-ubiquitous single's chorus, pitching the vocals down and throwing drum-machine detritus into the mix before launching into a smooth traditionalist jungle break. Reasonably, the use of what could be considered as pure kitsch as sample material carries the potential to rub discerning listeners the wrong way, especially in the post-quality flood of ephemera that threatens to strangle much of digital culture; it's a testament to d'Eon's talents, then, that he's able to wring pure pleasure out of what could have been a toxic conceit, with the results ending up not dissimilarly to Chicago footwork legend DJ Roc's Robin Thicke flip "Lost Without U".

As a whole, the EP is a considerable leap from an artist that was on the verge of being written off as one of the constantly burgeoning Montreal scene's also-rans, which makes d'Eon's next artistic move specifically crucial. An irritating development in North American experimental electronic music over the last several years—especially in regard to those young artists who fall into the "bedroom producer" grouping—has been a willingness to shift from style to style, often foregoing personal refinement in favor for whatever sound is currently in vogue. Some interesting music has come from this widespread try-anything-once attitude, but a dangerous by-product has been an overall lack of distinctiveness from the artists involved. If d'Eon continues to push himself in Arc of Fire's promising direction instead of becoming distracted by whatever comes along next, he could end up with something even more substantial–and, more importantly, new-sounding.